Mayawati not serious about helping Dalits: Paswan

Lucknow, Jan 13 (IANS) Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan Tuesday charged Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati of not being serious about fighting for the rights of Dalits and the downtrodden.”Atrocities against Dalits in Uttar Pradesh are on the rise. Even the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau mentions it. This fact clearly exposes Mayawati’s tall claims of protecting Dalits’ rights,” Paswan told reporters here during a conference organised by the National Dalit Front (NDF).

Paswan, who is also president of the NDF, said that Mayawati will never be able to fulfil her dream of becoming the country’s prime minister.

“Owing to her wrong polices, Mayawati’s fate will be similar to that of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, who was shown the door in the 2007 state assembly elections,” said Paswan.

He claimed that it was only NDF which could fight for Dalit rights and help them raise their living standards.

Attacking the Left parties, Paswan said that in the present political scenario they held no importance.

“The result of the by-election of Nandigram in West Bengal, which was considered a stronghold of the Left parties, was a blow to their reputation and they should learn from this,” said Paswan.

Republican Party of India (RPI) president and NDF member Ramdas Athawale, who was present at the conference, demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the massive fraud in Satyam Computer Services.

Athawale alleged that the earlier National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was in the know of the scam and tried its best to cover it up because of its closeness with former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandra Babu Naidu.